Mediaweek’s Top 25 Media People 2017: Lisa Wilkinson

Our annual listing of 25 media executives who made a difference this year and are shaping how 2018 will look.

Lisa Wilkinson, Presenter & executive editor, Ten & ten daily

Mediaweek profiled the experienced television breakfast host earlier this year when she was marking a decade on Nine’s Today show. LisaWilkinson was previously the host of Seven’s WeekendSunrise.

On her move from Seven to Nine a decade ago, Wilkinson said: “People thought I was nuts to leave the reigning program. I could see it was going to be pretty difficult to get the weekday job on Sunrise because Mel [Doyle] was doing such a brilliant job. The natural successor to her was NatalieBarr. So I thought that at the very best, I am third in line for that gig.”

Wilkinson became the centre of a media storm that lasted over a week when she announced that she would not be continuing to host Today. Ten and its new American owner CBS seized this opportunity and signed Wilkinson to the network. Wilkinson has been appointed as the executive editor of Ten’s upcoming digital platform ten daily. This is in addition to her on-air role as a presenter on TheProject.

Ten is said to be in conversation about further opportunities for the well-known personality at the network. There is no doubt that Wilkinson fans and Ten viewers will be seeing more of her on screen in 2018.